Tagged with 'plastics'

Everyone tends to take recycling serious in the household but do you remember to carry on the recycling on bathroom products, whether it is in the household or the work environment

It’s not Easter if you don’t feast on a chocolate egg or three. The first chocolate Easter eggs in Britain were introduced by Fry’s in 1873, and now they make up around 10% of our annual spending on chocolate. Just incase you were wondering, we munch our way through about 80 million chocolate eggs every year. Not great for our waistlines, or for the environment.

The UK waste management charity WasteAid UK is set to run a two year plastic recycling project in Gambia that is being funded by the government.  The charity has been working in Africa since 2015 and since then has set up recycling centres in 27 communities.  

Following in the footsteps of Walker's, Pringles have introduced a recycling scheme for its packaging, from December consumers will be able to recycle the cans.  In the past Pringles have been criticised due to the complex construction of the cans made it almost impossible to recycle.  

Recycling your old toothbrush is not usually high on anyones agenda but Colgate and TerraCycle have launching a joint recycling programme which is a free nationwide recycling scheme for orcal care and products.  

The charity RECOUP has joined forces with Norfolk Waste Partnership to develop a campaign to show how clothing can be made from recycled plastic bottles.  Students from Norfolk were asked to get creative and design items of clothing that could be made from polyester which comes from PET bottles, 9 finalists were chosen and were given materials to create their idea. 

When it comes to recycling, contact lenses may not be high up on the list, but with millions of people in the UK wearing contact lenses this equates to a lof of plastic waste.  Valli Opticians has introduced a contact lens recycling scheme across their 14 practices, the lenses are collected and then sent to TerraCycle who sort them into different materials.

With China banning the importing of some recycling, many countries are now stuck with the dilemma with how to dispose recyclable waste, especially with plastics.  2 Options are send them to landfill which are slowly filling up, or incinerating, which causes damage to the atmosphere.  

The UK packaging industry has been accused of exaggerating how much of its plastic gets recycled.  In a recent report it has been stated that packaging firms only contribute a small amount of its substantial waste management bill.  The government are still facing calls for a deposit return scheme but face opposition from packaging industry firms.  

Despite councils and England needing to hit recycling targets, 27% of councils are still not recycling plastics like tubs, pots and foot trays.  The Recycling Association say that people are trying to do their bit but a lackadaisical attitude from the councils is not helping the situaton.